billh

I offer the Bradford Colliery Branch of the Ashton Canal, this joined the main line of the canal between locks 6 & 7. I reckon it qualifies for inclusion in this thread as the terminal basin now lies under the Manchester CITY (aka Etihad) football stadium😀 The last use of the branch was to take away water from the mine, closed completely in 1969.

Gorton loco works did supply castings for the lock gear, the wooden patterns were kept in the canal depot until it closed and were thrown on a bonfire in 1962.I can remember some of the unique (?) gear on the Ashton ground paddles, there was a round guard cover over the gear at the top, sometimes with "LNER" in raised letters on the side. Last time I looked there was something similar on the side pond paddles at Bosley, I think BW restored one of them as an example, ten or so years ago? Some Ashton ground paddles had a wooden post and no reduction gear. Four paddles , two co-acting on the g

Kelvins used to have an engine driven "wash pump" for clearing the deck of fish guts etc through the scuppers. Could also be used for putting fires out 😃 Some 4cylinder models have 2 uniflow cooling pumps but no bilge pump All the DM2 Nationals I've seen have bilge and cooling pumps as per picture with a dog clutch to bilge pump

The boat Maria is also wearing well and she IS that old😀

There's something very, very similar to BluTak that comes with the install kit for new hobs etc , seals to the work top and holds it in place- are you sure it wasn't that? Of course, it maybe BT that is supplied anyway😀

That has created the amusing situation of 2 daily waste trains passing us within an hour of each other, one full and one empty but both going in the same direction! the full one starts at Knowsley ,(not very far from Runcorn) with Merseyside's rubbish and goes to Teeside , well over a hundred miles (why does that make sense?). The empty train is returning from Runcorn to a Manchester waste transfer station. Economics, mad-house etc!

Yes, way to go! My cousin retired from BRNC Sandquay last year. His father did the same job from 1950ish to 1990's. Both were/are experts on small marine engines, latterly mostly Perkins I think. The Enfield engines were phased out many years ago but I recall more recently a dealer near Manchester selling rebuilt ex RN Enfields, with gearbox etc for £250. Cousin is now into canal boating and is very handy to have on board when it comes to engine maintenance. He served many years in the army as well, so if you need your Centurion tank fixing, he's your man.😃

For those interested in industrial archeology,still at Guide Bridge: There was a cotton spinning mill on the right of towpath here, Hamer's Union Cotton Mill. Originally powered by a 700HP vertical marine type steam engine, built a few hundred yards away at Scott and Hodgson's , Guide Bridge. The mill was badly damaged by fire in 1917, the engine was undamaged and sold to Waterloo Room & Power Ltd at Silsden on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Moved to that place by canal. Very surprising , over a century later, the engine still exists, entombed in its engine house: https:/

The working party at Guide Bridge was part of the Ashtac event in March 1972. This part of the canal is a few yards from my parents' house and was my playground from the early 60's (until the present day!). The canal here was in a dreadful state and had last been used I think in 1965 when the horseboat Medic carrying puddling clay for leak repairs was punted from Lumb Lane to Portland Basin. As a result of the Ashtac work we managed , a month later,to get motor maintenance boat Joel from Portland Basin to Fairfield Locks and back, last possible in 1962, so a belated thank you to all

About twenty of the EE type 4s got named after ocean liners. They were used on the West Coast line between Euston and Liverpool, to connect with transatlantic shipping from the port. This was at the time that the liners were fading away, so it wasn't a brilliant publicity move. The main west coast traffic to Scotland was still in the hands of Coronation pacifics, the type 4s could only just keep up with them and perhaps BR didn't trust them for such a long journey. Later double headed EE class50s came in north of Crewe and stole the show until full electrification.

I should add that the street the deceased house was at the end of was and is KELVIN street😃

There was a similar serious landslip near there, years ago. It was on the Anderton side of Barnton road bridge. At the time there was a danger of a number of buses falling into the canal from the parking area above. You can still see where a new narrowed channel was constructed at great expense. There was a long legal argument about who was responsible and the repair works took months (years?) to do. Clearly the cost of repair lies with the land owner, but C&RT will have to sort it out. A lot of years ago, a house fell into the Ashton Canal, shortly after the canal had been dredged

Late to the party here, what about: TPW =Tow Path Walker (Towpath Walker)